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Hawtreyan Credit Deadlock or Keynesian Liquidity Trap? Lessons for Japan from the Great Depression

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  • Roger Sandilands

    (Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde)

Abstract

This paper outlines the ideas of Ralph Hawtrey and Lauchlin Currie on the need for monetised fiscal deficit spending in 1930s USA to combat the deep depression into which the economy had been allowed to sink. In such exceptional circumstances of “credit deadlock†in which banks were afraid to lend and households and business afraid to borrow, the deadlock could best be broken through the spending of new money into circulation via large fiscal deficits. This complementarity of fiscal and monetary policy was shown to be essential, and as such indicates the potential power of monetary policy – in contrast to the Keynesian “liquidity trap†view that it is powerless This lesson was not learned by the Japanese authorities in their response to the asset price collapse of 1991-92, resulting in a lost decade as ballooning fiscal deficits were neutralised throughout the 1990s by unhelpfully tight monetary policy with the Bank of Japan refusing to monetise the deficits.

Suggested Citation

  • Roger Sandilands, 2009. "Hawtreyan Credit Deadlock or Keynesian Liquidity Trap? Lessons for Japan from the Great Depression," Working Papers 0904, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:str:wpaper:0904
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Optimum Taxation Policy and the Impact of Public Debt Under Modern Monetary Theory
      by andrew lainton in Decisions, Decisions, Decisions on 2013-04-26 14:29:27

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    Cited by:

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    2. K. Vela Velupillai, 2010. "The 'Minsky Moment' - A Critique and a Re-construction," ASSRU Discussion Papers 1009, ASSRU - Algorithmic Social Science Research Unit.
    3. Belongia, Michael T. & Ireland, Peter N., 2017. "Circumventing the zero lower bound with monetary policy rules based on money," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 54(PA), pages 42-58.
    4. Michael T. Belongia & Peter N. Ireland, 2018. "Targeting Constant Money Growth at the Zero Lower Bound," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 14(2), pages 159-204, March.
    5. Andrzej Slawinski, 2015. "Shielding money creation from severe banking crises: How useful are proposals offered by the alternative reform plans?," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 46(3), pages 191-206.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Great Depression; Japan’s Great Stagnation; Hawtreyan Credit deadlock; Keynesian Liquidity trap;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics
    • B23 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Econometrics; Quantitative and Mathematical Studies
    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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